Blog: Penner’s Pen

Penner’s Pen

Larry Penner is a concerned self described taxpayer and citizens’ civic activist who will be blogging about government, budgets, politics, economic and civil liberties issues of interest to local residents. He has been an avid letters to the editor contributor for over twelve years. His works have been periodically featured on the pages of The Queens Courier along with many other daily and weekly newspapers in Queens, the Metropolitan New York area and various magazines around the nation.

Will our debt destroy prosperity?
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 10/04/2012 at 9:59AM

Recent news that our national debt now exceeds $16 trillion is frightening. Don’t forget that local, town, city, county and state debt combined adds up to another $2 trillion! It is time for government to destroy its own credit cards. Let’s return to limited government accompanied by a minimal amount of confiscatory taxation to support [...]

Happy Birthday Newsday
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 9/27/2012 at 10:07AM

Congratulations to Newsday first published on September 4th, 1940 on your 72nd Anniversary. In the 1960s, NYC was blessed with over 12 daily newspapers sold at several thousand neighborhood newsstands. I still remember many of Newsday’s Queens based competitors from decades ago such as the Long Island Star Journal, Long Island Press and Suffolk Sun [...]

Ben & Jerry’s needs to lighten up
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 9/21/2012 at 10:01AM

How ironic that Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream owners, liberal icons of tolerance and choice, would file a restraining order against Caballero — the producers of adult entertainment whose DVD titles parody Ben & Jerry’s flavors. What is the harm of “Boston Cream Thighs,” “Chocolate Fudge Babes” and “Peanut Butter D-Cups” playing off of Ben [...]

Jet Blue is a beacon of light for free enterprise
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 9/14/2012 at 1:15PM

The recent lighting of Jet Blue’s Long Island City nighttime sign represents a refreshing change of attitudes. This good news versus the ongoing crackdown by the NYC Buildings Department with assistance from the NYC Department of City Planning and local Community Planning Boards concerning alleged illegal outdoor billboard advertisements including those on buildings which continues [...]

Speaker Quinn and sick leave
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 9/08/2012 at 3:53PM

The potential methods used by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to defeat the proposed “sick leave bill” supported by 36 of 51 members of the New York City Council is nothing to cheer about, when you look into the details. This measure would force companies to pay employees a minimum of five sick [...]

Take down the ‘wall’ against Walmart
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 8/30/2012 at 9:58AM

Polls of ordinary New Yorkers continue resulting year after year and now decade after decade to support the right of Walmart to open stores in Willets Point and other locations in Queens along with Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. Residents in the other 59 counties outside of New York City within New York State [...]

Why Senator Gillibrand will not debate Long
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 8/23/2012 at 10:27AM

Junior New York State Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has never been bashful around a camera or microphone just like her mentor Senior New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. She will follow the infamous Rose Garden strategy of ignoring her Republican/Conservative challenger Wendy Long. With less than ten weeks to election day, she has yet to commit [...]

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is a man of ideas
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 8/16/2012 at 2:32PM

There are two sides to every story concerning President Obama and Democratic surrogate attack dogs Vice President Joe Bidden, Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid, Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi along with New York Democratic Senators Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and lame duck Congressmember Gary Ackerman. They will all quickly pile on attacking Republican presidential [...]

The Passing of Fioravante Perrotta
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 8/09/2012 at 11:01AM

There is more to the recent passing of Fioravante Perrotta, who held various positions working for both Republican Mayor John Lindsay and Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He ran on the Republican and Liberal party lines in 1969 for NYC Comptroller losing a close race to Democrat Abe Beame. This was a fusion ticket with John Lindsay [...]

Why Senator Gillibrand has already won a full six-year term
Penner's Pen Larry Penner 8/02/2012 at 11:07AM

The November election results are already in. Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been elected to serve a full six-year term. Based upon the State Board of Elections registration figures as of April 1, 2012 — New York continues to evolve into an overwhelming Democratic bastion. Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2,821,021 voters. There are 5,649,934 registered [...]